How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
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Product Description
Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It’s a perfect window into the crosscurrents of today’s world, with all its joys and sorrows. In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, bright a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between. How Soccer Clarifies the World is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.
Amazon.com Review
The global power of soccer might be a small hard for Americans, living in a country that views the game with the same skepticism used for the metric system and the threat of killer bees, to grasp fully. But in Europe, South America, and elsewhere, soccer is not merely a pastime but regularly an expression of the social, economic, political, and racial composition of the communities that host both the teams and their throngs of enthusiastic fans. New Republic editor Franklin Foer, a lifelong devotee of soccer dating from his own inept youth playing days to an adulthood of obsessive fandom, examines soccer’s role in various cultures as a means of examining the reach of globalization. Foer’s approach is long on soccer reportage, providing wide history and fascinating interviews on the Rangers-Celtic rivalry and the inner workings of AC Milan, and light on direct discussion of issues like world trade and the exportation of Western culture. But by making such a compelling narrative of soccer around the planet, Foer draws the reader into these sport-mad societies, and subtly provides the explanations he promises in chapters with titles like “How Soccer Clarifies the New Oligarchs”, “How Soccer Clarifies Islam’s Hope”, and “How Soccer Clarifies the Sentimental Hooligan.” Foer’s own passion for the game gives his book an communicable energy but still pales in comparison to the religious vehemence of his subjects. His portraits of legendary hooligans in Serbia and Britain, in particular, make the most die-hard roughneck New York Yankees fan look like a choirboy in comparison. Beyond the thugs, Foer also profiles Nigerian players living in the Ukraine, Iranian women struggling against strict edicts to attend matches, and the parallel worlds of Brazilian soccer and politics from which Pele emerged and returned. Foer posits that globalization has eliminated neither local cultural identities nor violent hatred among fans of rival teams, and it has not washed out local businesses in a sea of corporate wealth nor has it quelled rampant local corruption. Readers with an interest in international economics are sure to like How Soccer Clarifies the World, but soccer fans will like it. –John Moe
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This book is a bigotry masqueraded behind the veil of a “scholarly work.” Every rule of rigorous work has been violated in this piece of work building on the darkest but forever smallest side of “soccer.” Wasting this fantastic opportunity to reveal the multi-dimensional power of the game the leader invests his bitterness against the sport page-after-page. A sweet revenge for “soccer” rejecting him in his early age? Well… my advise to the leader… keep on running away from the ball sir… and please stay away from it!!! You are RUINING THE GAME!!!
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This is a terrible book, written by somebody who
is really ignorant about football (please, use the
proper name for the game) and seems to have chose
to write a book based on secondary sources, puff
pieces and ignorant oversimplifications.
It would take too long to chat about the
copious inaccuracies, exaggerations, mistakes and
so into the world present in this horrid tract. Just as an
example, when dealing with Jewish football he
never mentions the peregrinations of Israel through
UEFA and Oceania (for WC qualifications). Yet this
would be exactly the kind of topic to be dealt with
in a book purporting to explore the intesection of
’soccer’ (sic) and geopolitics.
Compare this with Kapuscinski’s ‘The football war’ for a
vastly superior and more intelligent treatment.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This isn’t a book, so much as a collection of essays on a common theme. Foer picks a country and talks about how football/soccer can clarify some piece of that country’s culture. The essays can be loved separately or in sequence, and were perfect for my morning train rides to work. He never does renovate an (unlikely) theory of globalization and only makes inconsistent and half-hearted attempts to renovate it, but the content around soccer and culture is plenty entertaining.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
Before I start I should say that I am Red Star fan for nearly 30 years, and must admit that I that I do not admit the team I follow in this text. Moreover, factography is terrible at least not to say something worse and it used to prove that Serbs are the craziest nation in the world. Why do I say this?
1. Arkan tried to represent himself as a leader of supporters before war ongoing. Later on, as a warlord he wanted to influence supporters and club but he was resisted and then got a another club Obilic which was champion of the state in 1998 under the most shamefull circumstances( blackmails,beatings…) in the history of Serbian soccer. He lived close to the stadion, but he was not part of the club.
2. Red Star was the winner of European Champions Cup in 1991. and won the unofficial world club title wining the game against Colo-Colo from Chile. In that team national structure was:
one Croat ( R.Prosinecki)
two Macedonians(Darko Pancev, Ilija Najdoski)
one muslim from Montenegro( Refik Sabanadzovic)
others were Serbs.
Slovenians in the ex- Yugoslavia were conisdered a joke in soccer, with only one team( not regular) in the highest rank, only two players in national team( one of them played in midfield)in last 30 years before war boroke. In that Red Star team Jugoviuc a Serb was German like player nad Prosinecki a Croat an artist like Brazilian. These generalizations are completely fake and make you wander what is the credibility of the leader.
3.Ultra Terrible Boys? What is that? Joke? Hooliganism is not something unique for Serbia and Montenegro, this is something you can find anywhere in the world and in the most of the cases hooligans are completely nationalistic and close to gangs.
After first chapter I could not take anything from the book lacking set aside. Terrible reading, aimed to a name who does not know anything about soccer and knows very small about world outside US.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This was, by far, the most disappointed I’ve ever been in a book. It’s probably my own fault, but I was expecting tales of the cultural importance of soccer/football in different parts of the world. As a replacement for, I feel I’ve gotten a poorly written set of tales about psychotic fans/owners/players, etc that take the game too far. So much so, in fact, that I’m worried to go to a game overseas ever for dread that it’s either fixed or that I’ll be beat up for no apparent reason additional than the fact I’m there.
To be honest, I don’t reflect of politics a lot, so that doesn’t interest me as much, but even the writing was sub-par. Many of the chapters finished as if the writer just ran out of things to say.
Very disappointed.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5